2013-02-01
2013-02-09
x john mccain

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does this leave him? assume that he gets confirmed, he has to be a tough -- a tough guy at the pentagon. he is going to be tough with congress. he has to deal with the potential of the sequester, fighting for the budget that he does get, dealing with all of the problems that come at you when you are in charge of the pentagon and the generals and the other members of the joint chiefs are going to feel they can run over him. >> we'll see about that. i assume that every general with any number of stars was watching intently yesterday, and might have had that thought in mind. you said another important word, which is sequester. it's going to be a huge mess over there trying to, first, anticipate this, and then deal with whatever the new reality is. i do think that it was ugly yesterday. it was ugly on both sides. the white house wasn't so much from what i heard defending his performance as saying that those mean republicans also performed in an ugly and bad and not very attractive way. i don't think anybody looked particularly good in that showdown. i also think it's very clear that this is

on congress to take action to avoid those massive cuts to pentagon spending known as the sequester which kick in march 1st. if march can't pass a big bill, they ought to pass a small bill to delay the sequester for a few more months. house republicans led by john boehner immediately said no way. here we go again. the party of no opposing anything obama wants. we will tell you about that. also tell you the latest on drones and a lot more here on the full court press. but first, let's get the latest. lisa ferguson is here. well, she is not here. she is in los angeles with today's current news update. hi, lisa. good morning. >> close enough. los angeles, d.c. good morning, everyone. the president is in annapolis today after 10:00 this morning and atends the conference at the western annapolis hotel. vice president biden is swearing in john kerry as secretary at state from the state department and then later this evening, he is speaking at the house democratic issues conference in leesberg virginia. he will lay out a renewed plan for combatting climate change

. >> chuck hagel and the battle for the pentagon. >> the good news is, for the verse time in many years, republicans and democrats seem ready to tackle this problem together. >> the immigration problem. has somebody been reading exit polls? >> too many children areying too many children. >> also, the fight over gonds. >> law-abiding gun owners will not accept the blame for acts of violence or deranged criminals. >> the word on hillary in 2016. will she or won't she? >> i have no plans to run. >> thursday was not a good day for chuck hagel, president obama's tourist to be his next defense secretary. his old friend and fellow vietnam veteran john mccain jump all over hagel for opposing the surge in iraq. >> were you correct or incorrect when you said the search would be the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam? correct or incorrect? yes or no? are you going tonswer the queson, nator hage the question is, were you right or wrong? i would like to answer whether you were right or wrong. and you are fe to elaborate. >> i am not going to give you a yes or no answ

. it is for these reasons that i believe he is the wrong person to lead the pentagon at this perilous and consequential time. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator inhofe. we have two former chairmen of this committee with us to introduce senator hagel. no senator has had two dearer friends or better mentor is that -- mentors than i have had with senators nunn and warner. i want to welcome them back to this committee. i don't have to tell them that they are among dear, dear friends. it is a real treat to welcome you back to the committee. i will call on you, senator nunn, first. i will call you alphabetically. i have no better way to do it. sam? [laughter] sam, welcome back. >> first, for the record, seniority and age are two different things. senator levin, ranking member inhofe, i am honored to join my friend john warner in presenting chuck hagel to the committee and recommending that chuck be confirmed as our secretary of defense. i think it is worth noting that 68 years ago this month, john warner and listed in the u.s. -- enlisted in the u.s. navy to fight in world war ii. that was

the administration policy? he did not know what his own policy was, he is going to be the head of the pentagon. well it raises questions on shows like this but it will not affect --. >>chris: it would not raise a question in your mind? >>guest: he because not as crisp as he might have been but he misspoke it wasn't as if he projected a real difference on policy with the administration. what matters is how he performs as secretary of state. behalf nature set the bar high and i think chuck hagel will clear that bar. >>chris: laura, during his testimony he did not seem to know or think much about major issues of the pentagon or funding and he calls the iranian government elected? >>guest: the russians and chinese were it will watching how this played out because bill kristol was right saying it was not second rate performance it could have been the worst performance that ever took place at a confirmation hearing and that is saying something. as the secretary of defense it should not be that you won two purple hearts in battle. his patriotism is not questioned. merit should count. he is going to have to

the pentagon's budget and still protect national security. former defense undersecretary michelle flournoy, if identify got that right -- michelle flournoy, i beg your pardon, she penned an op-ed in the wall street journal this week. joining us is aforementioned michele flournoy. michelle, or undersecretary, which ever you prefer -- >> michelle, please. >> i thought your piece was terrific. sequester or not, defense department is going to lose 10% of its budget and you think there are good ways to do it. walk us through some of the key points. >> i do think the defense budget will come under pressure, even if we do get a deal. there are ways to reduce costs go after the defense enterprise rather than balance the budget on the back of the force. first cutting unnecessary overhead. the pentagon and d.o.d. has grown by more than 100,000 civilians in the last decade. we can pare those back now that we're coming out of a period of war. >> i thought your civilian argument was great. we've been through these wars and you're saying you can take it right back down without losing any national securi

will oppose hagel no matter what. >> i believe he's the wrong person to lead the pentagon at this perilous and consequential time. >> tea party senator ted cruz tried to gin up an old conservative bogeyman. >> i'd like to draw your attention to an interview you did in 2009 with al jazeera. >> but here's the real reason. these guys don't want chuck hagel in the defense department. this is the bomb bomb iran crowd. you see, mccain and graham have led the charge for possible war against the iranians as well as syria. chuck hagel sees war as an absolute last resored. it that's why president obama picked him. the two share similar views in philosophy as the obama administration attempts to define the role of the united states in the transition to a post-superpower world. their philosophy is this. the united states must get out of these massive land wars, iraq and afghanistan, and if possible avoid future large-scale war. despite all of the posturing and starcraft, hagel's nomination, well, is not in jeopardy. not one senator who previously voiced support for hagel has changed his or her mind. i

. yorktown, appomattox, the pentagon where 9/11 occurred -- there is a ceremony tonight i will be commissioned in -- there is a commission in april. we care very deeply about these events. one in nine virginians birth to death is a veteran. when you add in the guard and reserve and contractors, now you are probably talking about one in three of us. we care very deeply about all that is within dod. let me be plain, the threat that virginians and others are talking about now more than ever is the inability of congress to find a way forward on a reasonable budget compromise. that is what is in the newspapers and the headlines. at the direction of the deputy director, dod is planning for future cuts. i am very worried at the macro level about dod's ability to pursue and execute appropriate national security objectives in this time of congressional inability to find a budget compromise. the current cr limits flexibility, for example, of the military to appropriately taylor resources, we have no flexibility to deal with a shortfall. and to me, it seems like funding the military

his people do every do and confirm from the pentagon knew was in charge with the state department or urgent -- but leon panetta says it is not 911 that when your people are in danger that is more than 911. lou: john bolton serving the government to hear the secretary of defense to realize the outcry and a need warhol from the ambassador and officials from the government as a 911 call and department of defense can respond, how upset were you? >> i was beyond upset and speechless to what the testimony showed. it revealed incompetence at the top of the obama administration that is breathtaking. the president not concerned with americans under attack, secretary of state's all day long never once called to ask what might be done? the idea secretary not aware for request for satiric -- security saying can we help you out? nobody is hauled in this administration with national security. not just the failure of benghazi on negative benghazi but exposing the risk of facilities, citizens and their country to attacks worldwide. these people and not doing their jobs. >> the senior people are n

to start with a washington battle on full display this week when the president's pick to head the pentagon, former republican senator chuck hagel, came under fire from members of his own party during a very contentious confirmation hearing. >> name one person in your opinion who's intimidated by the israeli lobby in the united states senate. >> are we right or wrong? that's a pretty straightforward question. >> senator hagel, please answer the question i asked. today, do you think unilateral sanctions would be a bad idea? >> all this raising questions about how effective chuck hagel will be if confirmed as secretary of defense. earlier this weekend, i sat down for a rare joint interview with the top military leadership the outgoing secretary f defense leon panetta and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general martin dempsey. >>> secretary panetta, welcome back to "meet the press." general dempsey, welcome. let me start with the man that is poised to take your place. he underwent on thursday a pretty tough round of questioning. he seemed to struggle with a lot of the answers. of cou

'll be the head of the pentagon. >> well, it raises questions on shows like this but -- >> senator, it wouldn't raise a question in your mind? >> he corrected his answers and he watch as -- i think he misspoke and it wasn't as if he was projecting a real difference on policy with the administration. but, ultimately in matters, chris, it is how he performs as secretary of defense. on gates, leon panetta set the bar pretty high and i think he'll clear the bar and is better prepared the next time. >> chris: laura, at various point, in hagel's testimony he didn't seem to know or thought much about major issues, about the pentagon, about mondaying, at one point called the iranian government legitimate and elected. are you as forgiving as senator bayh. >> the russians and the chinese were probably watching how this played out, because, i -- as bill kristol -- he was right when he said it wasn't just a second rate performance, it could have been the worst performance that ever took place at a confirmation hearing and that is saying something, when you're the secretary of defense it shouldn't be the

level that he had been waterboarded. he had practiced at the pentagon. he had been working on this. but when he referred to containment on iran rather than prevention of nuclear weapons and had to be corrected and then corrected again, a note was passed to him, and then the chairman helpfully said to him, containment is not a policy at all. that is not our policy. that is such a critical mistake on an issue that he knew that he was going to be asked about. we knew that he was going to have to explain the, quote, jewish lobby and take that back and some of the other things. the way he did it didn't seem crisp. and then when ted cruz wheeled in the tv screen to play an al jazeera talk show and put him on the spot or how he defended israel or didn't defend israel in response to a question on a talk show, it would be like somebody saying to you or mika, joe, you were on c-span ten years ago, and what did you say to someone who called in? that was very, very tough. >> that was sort of my point at the top. >> it's interesting that you had said, mika, yesterday as we were going to a meeti

reasons, the pentagon have made their own case to the president. with the new resource problem home -- problem in mali. look what it took to support french forces against al qaeda subcontractors. if we can't do that, when americans are held hostage and killed, what kind of response do you really expect for -- >> is that a consequence of the u.s. not getting involved in mali earlier? >> what is the implication from that? that we need to be involved -- >> we were concerned about molly for at least eight months. only now there is discussion about what we should -- >> have another discussion on benghazi for the thousandth time. >> we are in the in danger -- in no danger of intervening too much. that is not what we have to worry about. >> let's move on. if you have a question, raise your hands and identify yourself. keep your questions short. let's go to -- then this woman right here in the black. >> as joshua said, syria is part of a broader middle east. what would be the position of the u.s. when lebanon, jordan, maybe israel and the whole region would be unstable? should the u.s. the

to the pentagon. that's what the sequester already contains. heretofore they thought that to be unthinkable. if the republicans are willing to give a bit on pentagon cuts are democrats willing to give on any social programs. >> you know already we have cut over 1 trillion-dollar. the only way we've been addressing the deficit minus from what we did on january 2nd have been through cuts alone. i think our safety net is already tattered, and i certainly don't want to see it destroyed. having said that i think there are ways to find savings. there are ways to find savings in medicare where you're not reducing benefits, you're not raising the age but renegotiating prescription drugs for one example. we can find savings without having any further cuts that actually slow the growth of our economy. >> jennifer: yes, totally agree. tell us just quickly about the process from here. there is only three weeks left. so what happens right now? the leadership goes in? what's the process? >> that's an interesting question. if you look at the month of february we're only in session for 11 days. that's a bi

on capitol hill right now on the a hearing for the benghazi terror attack where he addressed the pentagon's response to the assault on our consulate on september 11th. four americans, including our ambassador to libya, died in that attack. this comes just a day after mr. panetta emotionally charged parting speech to students at georgetown university where he blasted the massive defense cuts known as the sequester, set to go into effect just weeks from now. >> if sequester happens, let me tell you some of the results. we will furlough as many as 800,000 dod civilians around the country for up to 22 days. they could face a 20% cut in their salary. you don't think that will impact on our economy? you don't think that's going to impact on jobs? you don't think that's going to impact on our ability to recover from the recession? jon: mr. panetta also deliver ad stark warning about the scale and scope of cyber attacks on this country saying they could cripple the united states. >> we are literally the target of thousands of cyber attacks every day. every day. thousands of sigher about attacks t

them to be moved from the cia back to the pentagon. but the fact is that there has been something like a 700% increase in the use of drones under president obama as compared to george w. bush. >> and andrea, as you know, from your sources at the agency and i know from my sources not only from the agency but in the entire intelligence community when barack obama came into office, they specifically said, they wanted to ramp up drone operations. and they wanted there to be a side-by-side comparison of how many strikes bush did versus how many strikes they did. for brennan to say that he wants to pull back on drone strikes, that's just -- that's just not accurate. and that's not what's been happening since january 20th, 2009. you can go back. and when the history is written, you will go back to january 20th, 2009, and see a very deliberate -- >> executive orders. >> executive orders. and again, i think most americans probably support this policy. so it's not like i'm talking about anything that's going to be scandalous. most people will support the president doing this. but it obviously ca

talk shows and defended the man nominated to succeed him at the pentagon. panetta suggested the tough questioning senator hagel faced during third's capitol hill hearing, was driven by politics. >> it is pretty obvious the political knives were out for chuck hagel. what disappointed me is that they talked a lot about past quotes but what about when a secretary of defense is confronting today? we did not see enough time spent on discussing those issues. in the end that is what counted. >> he says hagel should have been questions about issues like afghanistan, the middle east, and the looming budget cuts at the pentagon but he came underfire for past statements of israel, iran, and u.s. nuclear strategy. at least 12 republicans plan to vote against hagel while only two, so far, have said they would vote for him. that is congress ran of mississippi, and a senator from nebraska. observers on both sides thought hagel did not do such a great job at the hearing. >> disconcerting thing, obviously fox anyone that watched it, he seemed unimpressive and unprepared on the questions that he knew w

to be running the pentagon. >> sam? >> well, i slightly disagree with robert. >> i thought you might. >> you know, actually it's funny because some of these questions did produce interesting, illustrative answers. for instance, when ron johnson got hillary clinton to say what difference does it make? well, it does make a difference. the problem i found with the questions was they ended up stepping on the news. they became so demonstrative and so theatrical that they ended up stealing the spotlight from the answers. that did a disservice in some respects to the question. >> is the real story the feeder of the questions or hagel's fumbling performance? i think it's the latter. i think hagel had a dismal performance at that hearing. did he seem competent to run the pentagon? there were a lot of questions even among democrats after that hearing whether he's ready. >> i don't disagree with that. i think hagel had a really poor performance. what i'm saying is for these senators -- if you looked at what ted cruz was asking about, association with an israeli diplomat that basically 99.9% of the coun

your perspective on the pentagon's role in securing our embassies? we just had a near suicide attack, if you will, suicide bomber, at an embassy in turkey just last week. what can be done more than what has been done now? >> the important things to do are first of all you've got to build up the host country capacity. in the end, these embassies do depend on host country, the details that provide security. so you've got to try to develop that. >> this shouldn't be more marines? >> no, no. let me get the rest of the part of it. you have to harden these embassies as much as possible. and third, we have been working with the ste department to determine whether additional marines ought to be assigned to that area. and in the end, the final alternative is our ability to respond in having our troops in a position where they can respond quickly. but i have to tell you, a lot of that still is dependent on whether intelligence tells us that we've got a big problem, and gives us enough warning so that we can get to the place to respond. >> did you have enough time to get there in time? >> no. >

, a member of the bush pentagon's defense policy board, michael hastings author of the new digital book "panic 2012, the sublime and terrifying inside story of obama's final campaign ♪ ♪ barbara siegel, also washington correspondent for the middle east website al monitor.com. great to have you all here. >> thank you. >> so i am -- well, where to start? i think the lessons unlearned to me was the most troubling. it seemed to me we had a moment in 2008 particularly in which president obama articulated this kind of alternative foreign policy vision and did so quite forthrightly. for instance, negotiations with iran and ahmadinejad. and somehow four years later, we've moved backwards, right? the old -- i guess as we've gotten further away from the debacle of iraq, as that's more remote in people's memory, there's more and more the sense of iraq ended up okay and you saw this -- i thought it was so interesting, it was the relitigation of the surge. because that in some ways is this key narrative plot point that somehow redeem tess entire war. and so you saw, for instance, john mccain, in

. it has been happening for the last several months. meanwhile at the pentagon officials are looking at big changes in how they fight cyber terror. bob orr is in washington. >> those attacks on the "new york times" and "wall street journal" are part of a plot to crack critical systems inside of the u.s. cyber detectives traced the computer break-ins at "the new york times" and "wall street journal" to government hackers inside china. chinese deny the allegations calling them not professional and groundless but both papers say there is evidence hackers stole reporters' passwords and attempted to monitor coverage of the chinese government. newspapers are just the latest targets. sources say state-sponsored spies mostly from china every day infiltrate a broad spectrum of government and business networks inside the u.s. >> cyber, i believe, represents as big a threat to the security of this country as any one specific threat. >> reporter: at his confirmation hearing thursday secretary of defense nominee chuck hagel warned computer-based attacks could be crippling

. >> reporter: he insisted he will lead, not follow, at the pentagon and around the world. >> america must engage in the world. not to retreat from the world. >> reporter: for hours, one republican after another accused the two-term nebraska senator of shading his true believes. among their concerns, past statements criticizing israel. >> do you think that it is right that israel was committing a "sickening slaughter" as you said in the senate? >> name one person in your opinion who is intimidated by the israeli lobby in the united states senate? >> your use of intimidation? i should have used influence. >> reporter: more focus on this area, where he looked at more nuclear weapons, even if the u.s. goes firsts. he says he doesn't agree with all the findings. >> why would you ever put your name on a report that is inconsistent with what you're telling us today? >> reporter: but the big flash point? iran, where he stumbled talking about basic u.s. policy, calling iran a "legitimate government". >> i do not see iran as a legitimate government. i would like your thoughts on that. >> what i mea

with the pentagon, first with bob gates and mike mullah, then with leon panetta and marty dempsey. by the same token, america's traditional allies and friends in europe and east asia remain invaluable partners on nearly everything we do and we have spent considerable energy strengthening those bonds over the past four years and i would be quick to add, the u.n., the i.m.f., the world bank and nato, are also still essential. but all of our institutions and our relationships need to be modernized and complemented by new institutions, relationships and partnerships, that are tailored for new challenges and modeled to the needle -- needle of a variable landscape, like how we elevated the g20 during the financial crisis or created the climate and clean air coalition out of the state department to fight short lived pollutants like black carbon, or worked with partners like turkey where the two of us stood up the first global counterterrorism forum. we're also working more than ever with invigorated regional organizations. consider the african union and somalia and the arab league in libya, even subregiona

of being an honest broker to find a solution to the two-state israel-palestine conflict and the pentagon reform needs to be on the table that we have more nuclear weapons than we need in the 21st century. those are all very mainstream views among national security experts and the american people at large. what is going on here is you have some republicans not trying to redefine the mainstream out from under the american people. >> john: i can't help but think that john mccain and chuck hagel once voted for donald rumsfeld not long ago. now you spent time on the campaign. what was their relationship then. >> the relationship was closer--it was close really from the beginning. back in the 1999 when i was a correspondent for a network we won't name in which john mccain and chuck hagel and then secretary cohen, a bunk of us reporters went to brussels. there was john mccain chatting with the brass and he would make time for chuck hagel. he said give time to my friend chuck hagel who was a new senator who we thought didn't know anything about foreign policy. now he's the first to endorse mccai

in broad daylight. look at surveillance video that shows the men smashing display cases at the pentagon city mall zales store. this was yesterday. the thieves got away with 27 rings worth about $120,000. they then jumped into a red car and broke through the parking garage gates. if you recognize those men, call police. >>the princeton review ranked two virginia schools as the best value public schools in america. the university of virginia in charlottesville is ranked number one. the college of william and mary in williamsburg came in fourth. the princeton review came up with the ranking based on more than 30 factors, including tuition, room and board and financial aid. >>> the very personal question a local college is now asking applicants. >>> plus a local highway where you can go a lot faster now. >>> bragging rights for the mornings spent sitting had traffic. we're number one. how many weeks we spend on average staring at brake lights. >>> weather and traffic on the 1s is next. >>> next, apple's jumbo ipad is out this morning. what you get for a bigger price tag. >>> a major debut f

. the thieves robbed the zales jewelry store at pentagon city mall yesterday. the four men smashed the display cases with hammers and stole 27 rings. they then jumped into a red car and broke through the parking garage gate. if you recognize these men, call police. >>> a group of firefighters in baltimore is happy to be waking up at home this morning. the first responders rushed to the scene of a four-alarm fire last night. this happened just before 6:00. the flames got so intense the firefighters were told to evacuate the building. as they left, the building collapsed, trapping five of them inside. the crew was rescued and rushed to the hospital. incredibly, they suffered only minor injuries. >>> richmond wants your input on how the area near the redskins new training camp should look. city council is holding a meeting to get ideas about landscaping near the camp. it comes after many of the trees were bulldozed. the city is also still trying to decide how to handle parking for thousands of 'skins fans expected to head to that facility when training camp begins. >>> we just got this in. hardy

riders are having to use a different entrance to the pentagon station. the south entrance is closed for the never several months while the three escalators are replaced. metro says the original escalators are 18 years old, and replacement parts aren't available. the north entrance will be open during all that work. >>> better bring your appetite. how you can get a free breakfast tomorrow. >>> but i want you back or that or this. ♪ >> and find out which super bowl commercials were a hit and which ones missed th (woman) 3 days of walking to give a break cancer survivor a lifetime-- that's definitely a fair trade. whoo! you walk with friends, you meet new friends, and you keep those friendships. it was such a beautiful experience. (woman) ♪ and it's beautiful ♪ undeniable (woman) why walk 60 miles in the boldest breast cancer event in history? because everyone deserves a lifetime. visit the3day.org to register or to request more information today. ♪ burning like a fire ♪ building up from deep inside it was 3 days of pure joy. susan g. komen's investments in early detection an

is going to the other side. that said when he is in the pentagon and controls the military in that capacity, they will have to deal with him and have the same interest in common. both parties want to keep the u.s. strong and safe and chuck hagel has been through worse. believe me, he has seen much more incoming than at that hearing. >> republican strategist, good to see you. thank you. >> good to see you. >> still ahead on the saturday afternoon, the latest on the scandal around the top u.s. senator. first, on this date, an announcement that led to the moment so many had been calling for. eventually to the end of apartheid. you are watching msnbc the place for politics. but don't worry, he'll find someone else. ♪ who's that lady? ♪ who's that lady? ♪ sexy lady, who's that lady? [ female announcer ] swiffer 360 dusters extender cleans high and low, with thick all around fibers that attract and lock up to two times more dust than a feather duster. swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. and now swiffer dusters refills are available with the fresh scent of gain. i just served my moth

military activity is that nobody in the pentagon would have ordered military act ship without a specific order from the president. and the president wasn't around. rick: i want do ask you both, we have about a minute and a half left. another story came out of these hearings. that is the president himself, rick, himself opposed a plan that was supported by pretty much everybody else in his administration, to try to arm the rebels in syria. what do you make of that? >> you know i think it's remarkable that his team was really recommending that we needed to do something to support what was happening there and identify the opposition, the right opposition and then try to give them some sort of military support. and the president said no. i think this goes back to exactly who he is and what he believes the inate, positive, good of people. i think he doesn't understand, the president doesn't understand, this is a dangerous world and that we need to take sides to make sure that the right people are the ones who take hold in syria. it is the same thing that happened in egypt. really the same thi

. in the meantime, panetta made news yesterday when he said for the first time the pentagon backed the idea of giving arms to rebels in syria. it's been reported hillary clinton and former cia director petraeus asked the white house for permission to arm the syrian rebels but were denied. >>> to d.c. politics now, the city's ethics board says it will not pursue evidence i found against council member jim graham. the board says further action cannot be taken because the incident happened before the ethics board was created. however, a federal grand jury is investigating graham and the contracting process. >>> fairfax county police say the serial fondler has struck again. take a good look at this updated sketch. now 18 incidents reported in and around springfield since september. all of which have the same suspect description and the same m.o. the man comes from behind and gropes women and runs. he has previously been described as having a beard. nowe's described as acne on his shaving bumps. >>> a maryland mother is facing charges that she murdered her 2- year-old. police say chelsea booth c

kill tv, jay johnson, a pentagon stop lawyer admitted, quote, if i were catholic i'd have to go to confession, unquote. mr. petraeus' departure presents mr. obama with an opportunity to halt the c.i.a.'s drift toward becoming a paramilitary organization and put it back on course. for all the technological advances america's made in the decade of fighting al qaeda, it still needs all the old tricks it learned in the day before spy satellites and droughns drones. more and better human intelligence in sources on the ground will result in more accurate targeting. that would be a yemen model that actually worked and a lasting and more effective counterterrorism legacy for mr. obama's second term. gregory johnson from "the new york times." another good article by patrick pool on june 6 of 2012. obama's assassination czar, a relatively unnoticed article, this is from the article, quoting, by associated press reporter kimberly dozer two weeks ago outlining new obama administration policy changes which consolidated power for authorizing drone attacks and assassinations under political ap

to the pentagon, but let's be honest, it's been ugly so far. >>> and the country says good-bye to one of its most outspoken and color mayors, ed koch, likes to say how am i doing, history would say he's done a pretty good job of leading new york into a new era. >>> good morning from washington, it's friday, february 1st, 2013. let's get to the first read of the morning. i'll get to the jobs report in a minute, but i want to get to hagel. i want to start there. no doubt chuck hagel had a rough outing before the armed services committee, the question is whether hostility to hagel's nomination breaks down so completely along partisan lines. that he's still able to survive. there's clearly a lot of republican opposition to hagel, some of it may be personal. the white house for now is chalking up the eight painful hours to political theatrics and believe these republican senators were simply tougher on hagel than they were on john kerry or on john brennan because they view hagel as a turncoat, but, wow, did hagel just sit there and allow himself to get flogged. >> i have already stated that i regret t

defending former republican senator chuck hagel saying that he will be an excellent pentagon chief. now, this comes after a fiery confirmation hearing with members of the senate armed services committee. he faced some tough questions including this one from senator james imhoff. >> why do you think the rainan foreign ministry strongly supports your nomination to be the secretary of defense? >> i have a difficult enough time with american politics senator. i have no idea, but thank you. >> senators could vote as early as this week. washington times columnist charlie hurt joins us to weigh in on whether we can expect senator hagel to be cob confirmed as defense secretary. >>> the reverend jesse jackson is leading a march today in honor of a chicago teenager killed this week. the 15-year-old high school band member gunned down days after attending the president's inauguration. just the latest victim in a city where there are 515 murders last year alone. more than 100 shooting incidents have occurred since january 1. reverend jackson called on president obama to come to his home town of chi

in new york. the pentagon is broken. what do we know about al qaeda? did we know that members of this network, all this information we take for granted now? >> we did not know that much. we did not know who was responsible for 9/11. we had a few assets that provided us some peripheral information. we did not know very much. it took a long time for us to be in a position to really learn what was going on. in march of 2002, we captured al zabeta. we recognized that we had to do something different. contrary to what some people are saying, he initially provided a couple of pieces of information. then he shut down. we knew they were coming after us in the second wave of attacks. we knew that they had a nuclear program. they had a biological weapons program. we thought we needed to do something different. that is when the enhanced interrogation program came into existence. he went through the program, started in august of 2002 for 20 days or so. a few weeks later we captured a major player. he was a go-between. this was the key to all of that. we forget that it was not just osama b

at this time we honor american service members killed in action, but this week the pentagon did not release any names of u.s. service members killed in afghanistan or iraq. that's the first time that's happened since july 2011. overnight however there was a tragic reminder that the horrors of war echo far beyond the battlefield. navy s.e.a.l. chris kyle whose best-telling book "american sniper" details four tours in iraq was killed yesterday at a gun range in texas. the shooter believed to be a former marine whom kyle was counseling through a struggle with ptsd. in iraq kyle was awarded two silver stars and five bronze stars for bravery. we honor his service. and that is all for us today. thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. check out "world news with david muir" tonight, and i'll see you tomorrow on "gma." >> in the news super bowl sunday is finally here as 49er fans and police get ready for the big game. and some cajun flavor for fans in new orleans. we will have a live report from abc7 news reporter katie marzullo from outside the super bowl. >> partly cloudy skies. temperatures n

to most americans has really grown exponentially. ten years ago the pentagon had 50 drones. today it's 7,500. a third of the air force's fleet unmanned. u.s. military carried out 447 drone attacks in afghanistan in the first 11 months in 2012. 294 total in all of 2011. what's behind this drone explosion, if you will? >> well, i think that drones are sort of irresistible for a policymaker, for a president who is worried about protecting the country but also, you know, a president who in many ways was formed politically by the experiences in iraq and afghanistan, at least as far as his foreign policy views, who doesn't want to see dangerous, costly, bloody military entanglements in far away nations. drones are surgical. they're cheap. you can have a pretty high degree of accuracy. it is true that there have been numerous civilian casualties, but relative to any other technology we have short of sending in, you know, an assassin with a sniper rifle which in many cases just isn't practical, drones are the best way to sort of take the enemy off the battlefield. they don't cost a lot of money.

but this week the pentagon did not release any names of u.s. service members killed in afghanistan or iraq. that's the first time that's happened since july 2011. overnight however there was a tragic reminder that the horrors of war echo far beyond the battlefield. navy s.e.a.l. chris kyle who's best-telling book "american sniper" detours four tours in iraq was killed yesterday as a gun range in texas. the shooter believed to be a former marine whom kyle was counseling through a struggle with ptsd. in iraq kyle was awarded two silver star and five bronze stars for bravery. we honor his service. and that is all for us today. thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. check out "world news" with david muir tonight and see you tomorrow on "gma." i got it when we could download an hd movie in like two minutes. [ male announcer ] once you've got verizon fios internet, you get it, the difference 100% fiber optics makes. but don't take our word for it, ask a real fios customer. ask me about the upload speeds. they're sick! [ male announcer ] so go online today and send a tweet to a real fios custo

've seen two budget-related announcements coming out of the pentagon. one, i was looking up just now because i was trying to remember the numbers, and that is that the pentagon is beefing up its cybersecurity force, taking it from 900 to 4,000 and putting a few billion dollars into it. the other one that is apparently being beefed up in these times of budgetary constraints are the special forces. tom, would you just talk about that generally and then, fred, if you would talk about that not just in afghanistan, but in the broader battle and the nature of it, and then we'll come over to publish shah and the non-- membership shah and the nonexistent challenge that faces us in asia. [laughter] >> i'll try to be brief, dani. look, these new capabilities, you know, cyber operations or whatever you want to call them are certainly necessary and needed, and our ability to exploit, you know, the electromagnetic spectrum configured as the internet is, you know, pretty critical. but it's not qualitatively different from other forms of intelligence gathering or, you know, attempts to either by pr

more about the pentagon. saying, quote, if confirmed i intend to know a lot more than i do. jonathan carl, abc news, the white house. >> not a great performance, as you heard. even from people who will vote for him or like him or fellow democrats, you know, who may vote for him. little more critical about the nation's military. does a person not have a right to go into a slaughterhouse and change their opinion on red meat? >> of course. >> republicans say this guy is further left than president obama. republicans are skittish about his nomination. >> people are saying though his performance, well he was really under fire. so i think anyone in that hot seat may not do his or her best they're saying he likely will be confirmed i suspect. >> it is going to be a bumpy ride. >>> in related news, secretary of state hillary clinton leaving office officially today after sounding a warning about civil war in syria. at a sort of exit interview, clinton accused iran of playing an increasingly prominent role directing violence in syria and says that only raises chances of a wider conflict in the

no auditable books in the pentagon. panetta, that's the one agency of government that has never submitted an audited set of books in history. >> bill: wow. >> not one -- and frankly by itself, that would i think provide an ability to really see where we're throwing money away. and again, secretary panetta, to his credit, has got a mandate within the four branches to basically say 2014, we've got to do this. frankly, it is going to be interesting to see if they can hit this goal. the size of the pentagon is bigger than 90 countries gdp. so but again so yes there's definitely smart savings that you can do there. again, i would go back to the afghanistan expenditure $2 billion a week we're spending over there. no one thinks we're going to have a combat mission after 2014. so you know, that's money that we're not going to be spending. and so really, the opportunities are there to avoid again by the way, the bipartisan policy center, "new york times" yesterday, said a million jobs will be lost if sequestration goes through. cbo says 1.4. >> bill: congressman, a lot of battles to fight. we're g

to take a closer look at how that hostage situation was resolved. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence. he's joining us on the very sophisticated operation that freed that little boy and what similar operations could look like in years ahead. chris, what are you seeing? >> reporter: yeah, wolf. we're now learning that the fbi used drones likely provided from the u.s. military to keep around the clock surveillance on that particular bunker. that coming from former fbi official tom fuentes who has been talking to his sources. the future and what the fbi may be able to do down the line goes way beyond what was done here. >> reporter: a little boy barricaded in a bunker with a killer. as the crisis stretched into a seventh day, an fbi hostage rescue team practiced how to save him. law enforcement sources now say the fbi built a mockup of the bunker and trained on how they'd go in. but how would they know what was happening below? a law enforcement source tells cnn authorities managed to slip a camera into the hideout. >> we're going to try to introduce microph

. at the challenge the people currently at the pentagon are facing. host: fredericksburg, virginia, independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. there's nothing worse than a great secretary and nothing better than a wonderful one. most of the individuals who work for our government appear not to have the wherewithal to know exactly what to do and appear to be on training wheels while they are learning. we the taxpayer take the brunt of everything. while you are a very unstudied lady and are only given the credentials you have having a report card to show who you are, this individual appears to be a floater guest: i think that is unfair. he has done a number of things throughout his career. he is not only a senator, but he was a deputy administrator at the department of veterans affairs. that is a massive responsibility. he cofounded one of the bigges

pentagon officials are looking at a big change in how they fight tearer. bob orr is in washington. >> those attacks are part of the broader campaign by foreign cyber spies to hack computer systems inside the u.s. officials warn more are inevitable as cyber attacks are ga greater now. to government sponsored hackers inside china. chinese officials denied the allegations calling them not professional and groundless but both papers say there is evidence hackers stole reporters' passwords and attempted to monitor governments of the papers. state-sponsored spies, mostly from china, every day infiltrate a broad spectrum of government and business networks insight the u.s. >> cyber terrorism presents one of the biggest threats. >> secretary of defense nominee chuck hagel warned the attacks could be crippling. >> it's an insidious quiet kind of a threat that we've never quite seen before. it can paralyze a nation in a second. >> for now the damage is economic. cyber spies and criminal hackers are stealing corporate secrets worth an estimated $250 billion a year from u.s. businesses but they worry m

reasons, the pentagon and the planners have made their own case to the president. and with the new resource problem we confronted in mali, look what it took to support french against al qaeda sub contractors. if we can't do that when in fact americans are held hostage and killed, what kind of response do you really expect for . >> is that a consequence of the u.s. not getting involved in mali earlier? >> what is the implication from that we in effect need to be involved -- . >> the u.s. has been concerned about mali for at least eight nows. -- months only now there's a discussion about where we should do more. >> look, in the time of the great extra cater. we are -- that -- what is threaten, our foreign policy is not manic interventionism right now. that's not what we have to worry about here. >> let's move on. if you have a question, raise your hand. i'm going ask you to identify yourself. keep your question short. let's go to [inaudible] of radio-- and then go to the woman right here in the black and hand the microphone to her. >> hi, my name is -- [inaudible] that syria is part

and commented on the pentagon lifting of the ban on women in the front lines of combat. one of the speakers was the first female pilot to fly in combat. here's a little of what she had to say. >> sitting in a squatter officer school, i was getting ready to go to fighter training, i just completed the triathlon, a bunch of injured 3, special forces, i take to their -- kicked their butts, and you had guys saying, "women don't have the endurance to do, admissions." you want to go outside and talk about this? [laughter] let's go for a run. the difficulty and the reason -- and seeing it even in the debates that are going on even though the train has left the station, a lot of people who are against this thing get away with you have been excluded from doing this, you have not done it, i have done it, therefore you cannot do it. i don't know if you have seen the nuances on tv lately. sure, you have been in combat and engaged with the enemy anbut that is the different from sustained operations. that is the language you are hearing, on fox, and it might. [laughter] -- fox, anyway. [laughter] justin

of the partnership that the state department has forms with the pentagon first with bob gates and then mike mullen and then leon panetta and marty dempsey. by the same token america's traditional allies and friends in europe and east asia remains a valuable partners on nearly everything we do and we have spent considerable energy strengthening those bonds over the past four years. and i would be quick to add the u.n., the imf and the world bank and nato are also still essential. but all of our institutions and our relationships need to be modernized, and complemented by new institutions, relationships and partnerships that are tailored for new challenges and modeled to the needs of a variable landscape. like how we elevated the g20 during the financial crisis or created the climate and clean air coalition out of the state department to fight short-lived pollutants like black carbon or work with partners like turkey, where the two listed up the first global counterterrorism form. we are also working more than ever with invigorated regional organizations. consider the african union in somalia and th

. i am very proud of the partnership that the state department has formed with the pentagon versus we on panetta and marty dempsey. by the same token americans traditional allies or friends in europe and east asia remain a valuable partner on nearly everything we do. we have spent considerable energy strengthening those bonds over the past four years. and i would would be clicked to add the u.n. the imf and the world bank and nato are also still essential. but all of our institutions and our relationships need to be modernized and complemented by new institutions, relationships and partnerships that are tailored for new challenges and models to the needs of a variable landscape. like how we elevated the chi 20 during the financial crisis, or created the climate and clean air coalition out of the state department to fight short lived pollutants like black carbon or worked with partners like turkey where the two of us stood up the first global counterterrorism forum. we are also working more than ever with invigorated regional organizations. consider the african union in somalia and the

that decision. so the president or someone in the pentagon makes a call and there's no oversight to make sure that the person they've targeted actually should have been targeted. >> stephanie: you know, i guess, again, it becomes this moral equivalence, i suppose of again, i was saying here we are coming out of the bush years where we had this completely unnecessary war in iraq. took our eye off the ball in afghanistan. that war dragged on and on. i think there's that argument people are making that a lot less people are dying. when the president talked about having a smarter -- tough but smarter foreign policy, in some ways you go boy i wish we could have gotten bin laden before we lost all of these people on both sides in afghanistan, right? >> right. that's exactly right. i think that generally obama's foreign policy has been smart. i think that the attack on bin laden was an example of a targeted killing. that was justified. and you know, targeted killings aren't new. admiral yamamoto was the senior most commander of japanese naval forces in world war ii. we got intelligence that he was g

essential. i'm proud of the partnerships the state department has formed with the pentagon. america's traditional allies and friends in europe and east asia remain in valuable partners in nearly everything we do. we've spent energy strengthening those bonds over the past four years. the un and world bank and nato are still essentials. all of our institutions and relationships check need to be modernized and complemented by new institutions and partnerships that are tailored for new challenges and model to the needs of a variable landscape. like how we elevated the g-20 during the financial crisis or created the climate and clean air coalition to fight short live pollutants like black carbon. or work with parties where we stood up the first global terrorism forum. we are working with organizations. consider the arab league in libya. even the lower mekong initiative that we created to help reintegrate burma into its neighborhood and try to work across national boundaries on whether dams should or should not be billult. ilt. world, people want to actually show up. a secretary state mig

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